This week, we released our first ever smartphone app. The new UFCW app is designed to highlight worker voices and connect consumers to union grocery stores nationwide.
For consumers who wish to make informed choices about where they shop, the app is a major development that will support workers who are coming together to preserve good, family-supporting jobs in our communities.
This is all made possible by the app's "Shop Union" feature. Now, anyone in the United States or Canada can pull up driving directions to their nearest union store on their phone- with a push of a button.
The smartphone app will also allow users to be constantly connected with updates from union members, breaking news, and original video. Information about how to take action for working families is at the user's fingertips.
Positive reviews about the app are already coming in from early adopters:
"What a great app! Now I can easily stay informed on the latest union news, and always find the closest union store even when I am on the go.”
“Love the feature where I can search for the nearest union grocery store!”
“Works well and smoothly. Quick download and installation.”
“This is great for finding union grocery stores! We need to support good jobs.”
Our friends at the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) compiled a video that shows footage of Mitt Romney attacking his number one enemy: unions and the workers they represent.
It’s a sobering glimpse into what a Mitt Romney presidency would look like.
In Mitt Romney’s America, workers are denied their right to stick together and bargain for better safety, wages, and benefits.
In Mitt Romney’s America, corporations take priority over working families.
In Mitt Romney’s America, wealth is rewarded over work.
The stakes of this election could not be greater. We need to work hard from now until Election Day to ensure that this nightmare doesn’t turn into a reality.
Watch the video below and share it with everyone you know.
“I commend President Obama for his support of marriage equality, and I’m proud to support him as he takes this historic stand. Marriage equality is an economic justice issue, and a social justice issue – and that makes it a union issue. In the UFCW, we have a long, proud history of standing up for fair and equal treatment for all workers – regardless of what they look like, where they come from, what language they speak, or who they love. These values are heartfelt. We work every day to fight discrimination and unfair treatment against LGBT people on the job. That’s why our union is a strong supporter of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) which would ensure justice in the workplace for LGBT workers. UFCW members have been negotiating equal health care coverage for same-sex couples into their union contracts all over the country for years. It’s the right thing to do, and the fair thing to do. I’m proud that the UFCW’s advocacy on behalf of families includes all families.”
This week, at the UFCW's 2012 Legislative and Political Action Conference, Department of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced the induction of our sister Addie Wyatt into the Labor Hall of Honor.
Addie Wyatt was a pioneering and inspiring union activist. She was a founding member of the Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), the first woman International Vice President of Amalgamated Meat Cutters, the first woman of color to serve on the board of the UFCW after its formation in 1979. We are proud to join Secretary Solis in honoring her and remembering her great work!
Check out the full story on Addie's induction here, and be sure to watch Secretary Solis's video greeting below!
UFCW's 2012 Legislative and Political Action Conference takes place today and tomorrow features a wide variety of speakers and presentations addressing the political landscape UFCW members face and the work our union is doing to advocate for the rights of working families. The conference will feature video greetings from President Barack Obama and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. Live speakers at the 2012 conference include:
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn
Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan
Wisconsin State Senator Dave Hansen
Ed Schultz
Stuart Rothenberg
U.S. Senate Candidate Heidi Heitkamp (North Dakota)
Illinois Congressional Candidate Tammy Duckworth
Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina
U.S. Senate Candidate Tim Kaine (Virginia)
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray
Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis
Check out the stream below for all the latest updates from the conference!
Joe Hansen, International President of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) and Chair of Change to Win, today released the following statement to join Walmart associates in the demand for leadership changes at the retail giant.
"The corruption scandal and reported cover-up exposed an unacceptable failure of leadership within Walmart. Walmart Chairman Rob Walton and CEO Mike Duke must resign immediately in an effort to restore integrity and accountability for Walmart associates, shareholders, customers, and communities.
“The New York Times exposed a widespread pattern of Walmart executives bribing government officials to secure permits to build stores in Mexico, followed by a cover-up led by corporate leaders including Duke and Walton. The article raises serious questions about whether Walmart has used the same tactics for its expansion in the United States and across the globe.
“For decades, Walmart has pursued a growth-at-any-cost strategy in cities and towns across the United States and globally. In the U.S., we have watched Walmart secure the building permits, variances, and zoning changes to open its stores, in spite of concerted community opposition.
“The public deserves a wholly independent and thorough investigation of Walmart’s practices. Communities across the globe should take heed of Walmart’s reported unlawful and unethical practices in Mexico, as the company works at a rapid pace to in expand its retail stores in South Africa, India, and China, to name a few, in addition to its global supply chain operations.”
A new article from the Nation on the Big Poultry-driven inspection rule recently proposed by the USDA really sums up the part of this issue many in the media have been overlooking.
UFCW members from around the country contacted to voice their concerns over worker safety in the poultry plants
As author Gabriel Thompson puts it:
"The way food safety has dominated this debate highlights how, in a country obsessed with food, we still fail to appreciate the people whose work brings the food to our table. While the government has responded to public demands for better inspection processes, tens of thousands of poultry workers may soon find their already dangerous job becoming much more so, with almost no public debate. We consider a food product safe if it’s something we can feed our children. But what if producing the food does so much damage to the hands of workers that they are unable to hold their own?"
From the outset, UFCW members have voiced deep concerns about the potential of increasing line speed limits to such a breakneck pace - it's good to see this concern getting some attention from the Nation. Take a moment to read Gabriel Thompson's full article here.
The Active Ballot Club (ABC), the UFCW’s political action committee, leads the charge to elect pro-worker candidates--so we don’t end up with anti-worker politicians making decisions that affect our future. ABC supports pro-worker candidates and incumbents--Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. The Active Ballot Club is the only Political Action Committee that exclusively supports the interests of UFCW members, and we use this tool to fight back against attacks on workers currently happening all over the country.
Today we're launching our 2012 ABC Contest, which runs through November 6. The rules of the 2012 ABC Contest are simple: Any UFCW member who signs-up to join the Active Ballot Club and agrees to contribute $1 or more per week, or any member who upgrades their contribution to the $1 level or more, will be entered to win one of twenty four American Express gift cards worth $500 each.
In the course of last year's contest, nearly 10,000 UFCW members from 23 locals around the country agreed to contribute $1 or more per week to ABC. Because of the success of that ABC contest, we were able fight back in 2011 against corporate backed governors like John Kasich in Ohio by overturning “Issue 2” – the controversial law that sought to eliminate collective bargaining for hundreds of thousands of public employees in Ohio.
We stopped state legislatures in places like Missouri that wanted to make their state a non-union state by trying to pass so-called Right-to-Work legislation. We sent a strong message in Wisconsin that union members won’t stand for Governor Scott Walker’s extreme, anti-worker policies.
It doesn't stop there. Active Ballot Club helps elect pro-worker candidates while stopping anti-worker agendas in every state. This would not be possible without the support from all of our members who are part of the Active Ballot Club. For more information on ABC and all the ways UFCW fights for the interests of working families, check out UFCWAction.org.
Big corporations, like Walmart, are promoting violence in our communities through their support of “Stand your Ground” legislation across the country. As the largest retailer of guns and ammunition in the country, Walmart has a financial interest in gun sales, and as it turns out, was one of the leading supporters of these laws. The fact is, a Walmart executive co-chaired the task force of ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council - that endorsed the Stand Your Ground law.
Here's a little background on ALEC:
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is a conservative nonprofit that mixes together corporations and legislators. It sounds simple, but ALEC isn’t just a backyard tree house club. Its membership includes an influential list of about 200 corporations and nearly 2,000 state legislators across the country. 1 in 5 ALEC influenced bills become law. ALEC is an expert at creating one-size-fits all legislation and then making it law all across the country.
The major advantage of ALEC is its ability to mobilize and influence its lawmaker members, a vast majority of which are Republican. If a bill pops up in a state house that puts corporate members at a disadvantage, ALEC, having direct access to its legislative membership, can rework the legislation into more favorable language.
ALEC supports and creates extreme pieces of legislation with no interest in mind other than that of corporations. It’s a direct threat to our democratic process. It gives the rich preferential access to influence government while everyone else suffers the consequences. Giving corporations paid access to state representatives, just because they can afford it, and then allowing those corporations to craft self-interested legislation has had harmful effects for communities everywhere
Middle class families have also suffered from ALEC’s influence. This is the organization that has attempted to marginalize the rights of workers nationwide by promoting legislation that strips collective bargaining rights, creates right to work states, and implements paycheck deception. State representatives aren’t supposed to be working for these corporations. They’re supposed to work for the people that elected them and focus on improving the districts they live in.
Walmart’s support for ALEC and Stand your Ground is hurting our communities, and Walmart associates are coming forward to speak out and try to get Walmart to withdraw from ALEC and take a public stand against laws like “Stand Your Ground” and voter ID laws. Join Walmart associate and Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart) member Samuel Maxwell in his quest to make his company better by signing his Change.org petition today.
Yesterday, in a rare moment of sanity, the Senate defeated a resolution by Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) that would have overturned a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) rule streamlining the voting process for workers to form unions.
This is positive news amid a rather frustrating legislative session. Here's what President Hansen had to say on the matter:
“I am pleased that the Senate defeated this transparently anti-worker resolution. Senator Enzi and his allies have a clear goal in mind: to legislate unions out of existence. It’s no different than what is being done by Governor Scott Walker in Wisconsin and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) at statehouses across the country. This NLRB rule is a modest step toward improving the rights of workers to organize. It will help eliminate some of the unnecessary delays and frivolous lawsuits that prevent workers from receiving a fair and timely election. But make no mistake, the NLRB union election process still overwhelmingly favors employers who control workers' schedules and opportunities for raises and promotions. Majority sign-up, binding arbitration, and true employer neutrality are all still needed to make the system even remotely fair. With this charade over, it is time for the Senate to get to work creating jobs and opportunity for the American people.”
Let's hope this signals a new direction for the U.S. Congress!
